A survey of the administrative problems encountered by public primary school head-teachers in Mbooni division in Makueni district

Abstract

Headteachers to a large extent encounter a lot of administrative problems. This is because they spend a greater part of their time handling problems from teachers, learners and parents. The purpose of this study was to survey the administrative problems encountered by public primary school headteachers. The study also sought to determine whether these problems hinder the headteachers from carrying out their administrative duties. The study also sought to find out whether the headteachers' administrative experience has effect in handling administrative problems. The literature review in this study was organized under the following sub-heading; school administration, importance of school headteachers, administrative processes such as goal setting, planning, decision making, budgeting, staffing, communicating, co-ordinating, evaluating, delegation, and also administrative tasks such as curriculum and instruction, school community relationship, staff personnel management, pupil personnel management, physical facilities management, finance and business management. The study was survey in design and the target population consisted of public primary school headteachers in Mbooni division. In this study one set of questionnaire was developed by the researcher as the research instrument. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. Part one consisted of the demographic data of the respondents. Part two of the questionnaire consisted of questions about administrative problems encountered by public primary school headteachers. These questions were open ended. Twenty five primary schools in Mbooni division were used. Five of them were used for piloting while the rest were used for the study. Twenty five public primary school headteachers .were given questionnaires to complete. The sample consisted of twenty headteachers who completed and returned their questionnaires. The following are the findings of the research study. 1. All primary school headteachers in Mbooni division encounter administrative problems the most frequent occurring being finance and business management 2. All primary school headteachers encounter the problem of frequent transfer of teachers without replacement. 3. No significant relationship existed between the gender of the headteachers and the administrative problems they encounter. 4. No significant relationship existed between the age of the headteachers and the administrative problems they encounter. 5. No significant relationship existed between the administrative expenence of the headteachers and the administrative problems they encounter. The recommendations of the study are as follows; - 1. More teachers should be employed in order to ease the problem of lack of enough teachers. 2. There should be intensification of serrunars, workshops, refresher courses on financial management for the headteachers and their deputies. 3. The field officers should be provided with government vehicles to enable them visit almost all the schools in Mbooni division. 4. There should be clear supervision and inspection schedule in all primary schools. The main purpose should be to advice the headteachers and teachers in order to improve performance in the schools. 5. The Ministry of Education Science and Technology should ensure that the grant-inaid given to the primary schools reach in time. This will help in solving the problem of unnecessary delays to buy necessary materials for the schools. The following areas are suggested for further research. 1. A study of the effects of the withdrawal of corporal punishment in public primary schools. 2. This research can be repeated in an urban set up because it was carried out in a rural environment. 3. There is need to carry out research on the administrative problems experienced by female primary school headteachers. 4. There is need to carry out research on the problems experienced by primary school pupils. 5. There is need to carry out a comparative study on the problems experienced by primary school headteachers and those experienced by secondary school headteachers. 6. There is need to carry out research on the relationship between the qualification of the headteachers and their leadership ability.